Syslog-summary

Overview:

A minimal Bash tool that displays the latest syslog entries in real time, highlights severity levels with colors, and shows message counts.

Features

• Tails a log file (e.g. /var/log/syslog or device-specific logs).
• Highlights severity levels (EMERG … DEBUG) using ANSI colors.
• Counts how many messages of each severity appeared in the last N lines [].
• Auto-refreshing terminal view (like a mini dashboard).

Usage:

First of all, you have two options for where your logs should come from:

1. Standard system log (/var/log/syslog) By default, traffic from your network appliances (routers, switches, PCs, etc.) is written into the system’s main syslog file. Problem: these messages get mixed with all other system logs, which can be messy.

2. Dedicated log file (recommended) You can configure rsyslog to send messages from a specific device (by IP or hostname) into a separate file. This keeps your appliance logs organized and easier to monitor/read.

Example: create /etc/rsyslog.d/switch1.conf:

Match logs from switch at 192.168.1.10
if ($fromhost-ip == '192.168.1.10') then /var/log/cisco-switch1.log
& stop

Then restart rsyslog: sudo systemctl restart rsyslog

Now all logs from 192.168.1.10 will go into: /var/log/cisco-switch1.log.

Run the script

Clone repo and make it executable using chmod:

git clone https://github.com/NTPriest/sysdash.git
cd sysdash
chmod +x sysdash.sh

Run it (default log file is /var/log/cisco-switch1.log, but you can change name log file tho):

./sysdash.sh

Configuration

LOG="/path/to/logfile"   # default: /var/log/cisco-switch1.log
LINES=20                 # how many recent log lines to display
SLEEP=5                  # refresh interval in seconds

Tips

• If your terminal gets cluttered, press Ctrl + L to clear the screen.
• Then execute the script again:

  ./sysdash.sh
  

Requirements

• Bash
• Standard tools: awk, tail, tput, sleep

License

MIT